


Alec, Magnus, and why I say they're (very) bad for each other

by TerresDeBrume



Series: Meta crossposts [4]
Category: Mortal Instruments Series - Cassandra Clare
Genre: M/M, Meta
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-29
Updated: 2014-12-29
Packaged: 2018-05-31 07:46:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,747
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6461842
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TerresDeBrume/pseuds/TerresDeBrume
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Crossposted from my blog--it's from December 2014, and it's pretty much what it says on the tin.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Magnus and pressuring people to come out

**Author's Note:**

> **ETA:** While I agree that the first summary was needlessly provocative and have reworded it slightly no, this is not going to be taken out of the tag. Tags exist for sorting purposes, and this text is about Malec, therefore into the Malec tag it goes.
> 
> Also, in case you're thinking AO3 is for fics only, a little extract from [Fanlore's page on AO3](http://fanlore.org/wiki/Archive_of_our_own):
>
>> The Archive of Our Own aka AO3 is a multi-fandom archive owned and operated by the Organization for Transformative Works. It is currently designed to host **text-based fanfiction as well as fandom nonfiction** and allows embedding (but not yet hosting) for vids, fanart and podfic.

Let’s be very real here for a sec: Malec is probably one of my unhealthiest ship. I love them to pieces, I really do but Magnus is _so bad_ for Alec I can’t even.

Like, literally, we side-eye Edward Cullen for dating 17yo Bella Swann but when Magnus dates 18yo Alec we (and I include myself in there) gloss over it because… er… Alec is legal?  
Except, you know, Alec is probably even less experienced than Bella was –he’s only known two people his own age for most of his life (discounting Aline Penhallows, who no one sounds close to throughout the books) lives in a (informedly) highly homophobic society and family and seems to have the social skills of a potato.

Yet Magnus passive-aggressively pressures him to reveal their relationship (I’m talking, for example, about that time in _City of Ashes_ where he all but tries to slut-shame Alec into admitting they’re dating –right after Jace outed Alec, btw- or that _other time_ in _City of Glass_ where he stops talking to Alec without warning because Alec isn’t jumping on the whole “out and loud and proud” train right alongside him) (you know, the centuries old powerful warlock with no family to disappoint and no society ready to kick him out in a foreign world if he farts in the wrong direction)

Magnus _says_ he would never pressure Alec into doing anything he doesn’t want to do but he _does_ , constantly. And when Alec messes up (badly, but not as much as Magnus makes it sound imo) instead of doing the adult thing and talking things out, Magnus dumps him like a dirty sock and completely refuses to take his share of the responsibilities.  
And when you consider that, if not for Cassandra Clare _completely_ _missing the point_ with the City of Glass coming out and its complete lack of realistic fallout (no, I’m not over that) Alec would be left almost completely alone with no efficient support system, it’s even worse.

And let’s be frank, Alec is far from the only person Magnus is a butt to –not that I don’t understand his pont of view sometimes, but that doesn’t make it okay.

And I just… honestly sometimes I think maybe the main reason why I ship them is because they’re a canon queer couple in a mainstream piece of media aimed at young people, because whenever I really think about them critically all I can think of is how they need to take a huge, _huge_ break and tons of therapy before they even consider getting back together.

And whenever I do, I can’t help but be torn because on the one hand I am so, so glad that young readers get to have easy access to characters who are like them in terms of sexuality (also Magnus and Aline are queer characters _of color_ which is important as fuck too) but on the other hand _this is such a shitty level of representation_ on so many levels I can’t even.

There _was_ an attempt, you can’t deny that and I won’t try to –and judging from the fact that Malec became a major selling point of the series for readers _and_ in the way C. Clare handled the COHF promo, Malec resonnated for a _lot_ of readers- but the attempt fell frustratingly, damagingly short and that’s not something any of us should forget.


	2. And ow to Alec's problems

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This part of the meta was written in response to the following message:
>
>> Hey, you've talked a bit about how Magnus is bad for Alec, but do you think Alec is bad for Magnus too? Because I feel like he is, in regards to slut-shaming and biphobia towards Magnus's previous relationships.

Yeah, I did talk about that although, as [910707](http://tmblr.co/myJx3PoIOqUwwWPIi-JSSfA) pointed out, the term “unhealthy” is probably too strong a word to apply to Malec (I need to finish answering the las post they posted too I’m so late ugh ><)

But yes, I agree the problems go both ways between them, and specifically I think Alec’s difficulties to trust Magnus and accept that he’s had other sexual and/or romantic partners isn’t a good thing either.  
Like, if you look at the way Alec talks about Magnus’ past, it’s always in an accusatory tone, and he has a definite tendency to assume every name that comes out of Magnus’ past means Magnus had sex with them at some point, which is both unrealistic and unfair to Magnus.

You can’t really ask someone who’s centuries old not to have a romantic or sexual history (unless they’re aro ace immortals, I guess, and even then the lack of romance/sex in their past isn’t a given).  
It’s especially unfair to make it a condition of your trust, which is sometimes how Alec sounds when he talks to Magnus.

To try and be fair though, I don’t think Malec’s problems are unsolvable on the whole (although it’s possible I don’t sound that way) but they require actual discussion and communication which doesn’t happen in TMI canon, and [I don’t really think Cassandra Clare realizes what’s missing from her novels either](http://terresdebrume.tumblr.com/post/105921578521/oh-god-somebody-asked-cassandra-clare-about).

**EDIT:  
**

  
[talysalankil](http://talysalankil.tumblr.com/) replied to your [post](http://terresdebrume.tumblr.com/post/106503690551/hey-youve-talked-a-bit-about-how-magnus-is-bad) : _[Hey, you’ve talked a bit about how Magnus is bad…](http://terresdebrume.tumblr.com/post/106503690551/hey-youve-talked-a-bit-about-how-magnus-is-bad)_  


> Don’t forget the fact that one of his exes being *a girl* is apparently a big deal to Alec.

Oh yeah, it is. I usually talk more about the dubious ways in which Camille is written but it’s true that Alec seems to have quite the problem with her being a woman, especially since she’s a _significant_ ex.

**EDIT 2: Further discussion on that topic[here](http://terresdebrume.tumblr.com/post/106535906536/910707-replied-to-your-post-hey-youve-talked-a).**

 

* * *

 

 

**PART TWO:**

  
[910707](http://910707.tumblr.com/) replied to your [post](http://terresdebrume.tumblr.com/post/106503690551/hey-youve-talked-a-bit-about-how-magnus-is-bad) : _[Hey, you’ve talked a bit about how Magnus is bad…](http://terresdebrume.tumblr.com/post/106503690551/hey-youve-talked-a-bit-about-how-magnus-is-bad)_  


> Hmm, i dont’t know, maybe Alec & everyone else are just surprised. I mean I don’t recall Magnus stated anything about his sexuality in the first 3 books (correct me if i’m wrong) so everyone just assumed he is gay?

Well, now that I check, it’s true the word bisexual doesn’t appear until _City of Lost Souls_ , and Magnus only says he’s been with women in _City of Fallen Angels_ , after Alec meets Camille, so I guess you could also interpret it as Alec being surprised.

It doesn’t read that way to me however, not the way he phrases it:

 

> “I am,” Magnus said, drawing off his gloves. “I’ll talk to Camille for you.”  
>  “Camille?” Alec looked at Magnus with his eyebrows raised. “You know her, then? Or—she knows you?”  
>  “We know each other.” Magnus shrugged, very slightly, as if to say, What can you do? “Once upon a time she was my girlfriend.”
> 
> [Chapter change]
> 
> **“Your _girlfriend_?” Alec looked astonished. So did Maryse. Simon couldn’t say he was unastonished himself. “You dated a _vampire_? A _girl_ vampire?”**  
>  “It was a hundred and thirty years ago,” said Magnus. “I haven’t seen her since.”  
>  “Why didn’t you tell me?” Alec demanded.  
>  Magnus sighed. “Alexander, I’ve been alive for hundreds of years. I’ve been with men, been with women—with faeries and warlocks and vampires, and even a djinn or two.” He looked sideways at Maryse, who looked mildly horrified. “Too much information?”  
>  “It’s all right,” she said, though she sounded a little wan. “I have to discuss something with Kadir for a moment. I’ll be back.” She stepped aside, joining Kadir; they disappeared through the doorway. Simon took a few steps back as well, pretending to study one of the stained-glass windows intently, but his vampire hearing was good enough that he could hear everything Magnus and Alec were saying to each other, whether he wanted to or not. Camille, he knew, could hear it too. She had her head cocked to the side as she listened, her eyes heavy-lidded and thoughtful.  
>  “How many other people?” Alec asked. “Roughly.”  
>  Magnus shook his head. “I can’t count, and it doesn’t matter. The only thing that matters is how I feel about you.”  
>  “More than a hundred?” Alec asked. Magnus looked blank. “Two hundred?”  
>  “I can’t believe we’re having this conversation now,” Magnus said, to no one in particular. Simon was inclined to agree, and wished they weren’t having it in front of him.  
>  “Why so many?” Alec’s blue eyes were very bright in the dimness. Simon couldn’t tell if he was angry. He didn’t sound angry, just very intense, but Alec was a shut-down person, and perhaps this was as angry as he ever got. “Do you get bored with people fast?”  
>  “I live forever,” Magnus said quietly. “But not everyone does.”  
>  Alec looked as if someone had hit him. “So you just stay with them as long as they live, and then you find someone else?”  
>  Magnus didn’t say anything. He looked at Alec, his eyes shining like a cat’s. “Would you rather I spent all of eternity alone?”  
>  Alec’s mouth twitched. “I’m going to find Isabelle,” he said, and without another word he turned and walked back into the Institute.

(I bolded the relevant sentence to make it easier to find, but the italics are Clare’s).

While I agree part of it could be surprise, I can’t read it that way because of this. Alec (and all his family) has prejudice against vampire, that’s no secret. The way he phrases things here implies disbelief at the idea that Magnus would date a vampire, disbelief that could come from Magnus stating at some point that he wasn’t into vampires (in which case it should have been shown in canon) _or_ because Alec’s prejudice caused him to disregard vampires as a viable dating option.  
In that perspective, the fact that he specifies a _girl_ vampire can’t sound like anything that an aggravating factor/circumstance in his mouth –at the very least, not to me.

Like, even if you read Alec’s reaction as surprise that Magnus could have dated a woman, it’s at the very least a sign that he considers monosexuality as the norm.  
Granted, it wouldn’t be surprising for him to do so, for reasons linked to the books’ context _and_ to western society’s conception of sexuality, but that doesn’t make it less prejudiced tbh, and it’s still invalidating Magnus’ experience.

Also, the rest of the scene is written like Alec is angry at Magnus, and the way he’s immediately hung up on knowing the number of people Magnus dated smells of slut-shaming at the very least. So I guess there _is_ an element of surprise to Alec’s reaction, but I don’t think it erases the less savory aspects of it  tbh :/

**ADDENDUM:**

[mummyholmesisupset](http://mummyholmesisupset.tumblr.com/) replied to your post [ “910707 replied to your post:Hey, you’ve talked a bit about how Magnus…”](http://terresdebrume.tumblr.com/post/106535906536/910707-replied-to-your-post-hey-youve-talked-a)

> I’ve been on the receiving end of that sentence and that is definitely a monosexual slut-shaming& being scandalized at a bisexual’s previous romantic/sexual history.


End file.
